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At the same time, while thefts from vehicles remained at similar levels only 2.7 per cent were caught and formally charged in 2015 - down from 3.4 per cent in 2014.

Thieves know they can get away with it as they are unlikely to get caught

Jon Wilshire, Chief Underwriting Officer at esure

The figures were released under a Freedom of Information request by esure.

Around 70,000 vehicles are stolen each year in Britain, but just 10 per cent result in the thief being caught and charged - falling from 11 per cent the previous year.

For example, Lancashire Police reported that in 2015 71 per cent of car thefts had no line of inquiry resulting in no follow up investigation - up from 69 per cent in 2014. As a result, just 13 per cent of car thieves were charged in Lancashire last year.

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Car theft figures are on the rise across the country

With car security systems more sophisticated than ever, one might think the process of recovering a stolen vehicle has improved.

But once a car is stolen its owners stand little chance of ever seeing it again, according to the research.

In 2015 less than a third of vehicles were recovered (29 per cent).

While there are fewer police officers dedicated to stolen vehicle recovery, police budget cuts and overstretched resources, more stolen cars are likely to be exported making them harder to recover.

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While figures are on the rise, the number of thieves caught is dropping

Re-offending rates are also high among car thieves. Among those where the car thief was caught and charged - almost one in three (32 per cent) of these convicted criminals went on to commit a new crime within the year.

Jon Wilshire, Chief Underwriting Officer at esure, said: “Car crime is up in many areas across the country despite cars becoming increasingly hard to steal.

“These statistics suggest that part of the reason for this trend is that thieves know they can get away with it as they are unlikely to get caught, and even if they do very few face a custodial sentence - demonstrated in the re-offender rates.

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Less than a third of stolen vehicles were recovered in 2015

“Stealing a modern car without keys is difficult so the majority of thefts we see are when thieves get hold of car keys either by breaking into a property or stealing them from personal belongings.